The cooling problem in electric apparatus in general
increases in difficulty with increasing size. The surface area from which the
heat must be carried away increases roughly as the square of the dimensions,
whereas the heat developed by the losses is roughly proportional to the volume and
therefore increases approximately as the cube of the dimensions.
This problem is a particularly serious one in large turbine
generators, where economy, mechanical requirements, shipping, and erection all
demand compactness, especially for the rotor forging. Even in moderate size
machines, for example, above a few thousand kVA for generators, a closed
ventilating system is commonly used.
Rather elaborate systems of cooling ducts must be provided
to ensure that the cooling medium will effectively remove the heat arising from
the losses.
For turbine generators, hydrogen is commonly used as the
cooling medium in the totally enclosed ventilating system. Hydrogen has the
following properties which make it well suited to the purpose:
- Its density is only about 0.07 times
that of air at the same temperature and pressure, and therefore windage and
ventilating losses are much less.
- Its specific heat on an equal-weight basis is about 14.5
times that of air. This means that, for the same temperature and pressure,
hydrogen and air are about equally effective in their heat-storing capacity per
unit volume, but the heat transfer by forced convection between the hot parts
of the machine and the cooling gas is considerably greater with hydrogen than
with air.
- The life of the insulation is increased and maintenance
expenses decreased
because of the absence of dirt, moisture, and oxygen.
-The fire hazard is minimized. A hydrogen-air mixture will
not explode if the hydrogen content is above about 70 percent.
The result of the first two properties is that for the same
operating conditions the heat which must be dissipated is reduced and at the
same time the ease with which it can be carried off is increased.
The machine and its water-cooled heat exchanger for cooling
the hydrogen must be sealed in a gas tight envelope. The crux of the problem is
in sealing the bearings.
The system is maintained at a slight pressure (at least 0.5
psi) above atmospheric so that gas leakage is outward and an explosive mixture
cannot accumulate in the machine. At this pressure, the rating of the machine
can be increased by about 30 percent above its aircooled rating, and the
full-load efficiency increased by about 0.5 percent.
The trend is toward the use of higher pressures (15 to 60
psi). Increasing the hydrogen pressure from 0.5 to 15 psi increases the output
for the same temperature rise by about 15 percent; a further increase to 30 psi
provides about an additional 10 percent.
An important step which has made it possible almost to
double the output of a hydrogen-cooled turbine-generator of given physical size
is the development of conductor cooling, also called inner cooling. Here the
coolant (liquid or gas) is forced through hollow ducts inside the conductor or
conductor strands.
Thus, the thermal barrier presented by the electric
insulation is largely circumvented, and the conductor losses can be absorbed
directly by the coolant. Hydrogen is usually the cooling medium for the rotor
conductors.
Either gas or liquid cooling may be used for the stator
conductors. Hydrogen is the coolant in the former case, and transit oil or
water is commonly used in the latter.
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